


out of these waters

by somnia_tuan



Category: BLACKPINK (Band), GOT7
Genre: Angst, Boats and Ships, F/F, Fluff, Little Mermaid Elements, M/M, Mermaids, Mermen, Ocean, dated clothing, i am back with my mark and rosie best friend agenda, idk it's a little mermaid au and it's cute, it's a little mermaid au ~
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-22 20:42:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30044475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somnia_tuan/pseuds/somnia_tuan
Summary: Mark and Rosie have all they could ever ask for in their lives under the sea. Freedom to swim where they want, treasure hunting whenever their hearts desire and the company of each other. But when the best friends bid goodnight, their curiosities take them to the surface where they find everything they really could ever want but can’t have.
Relationships: Kunpimook Bhuwakul | BamBam/Mark Tuan, Lalisa Manoban | Lisa/Park Chaeyoung | Rosé, Park Chaeyoung | Rosé & Mark Tuan
Comments: 6
Kudos: 11





	1. Chapter 1

Mark peeks around the buoy, eyes scanning the dock as the fishermen and workers unload the ship just docked. He hides as a group of men come down the walkway onto the dock and Mark perks up when he spots the familiar head of rich black hair he’s been looking for. He peeks around the buoy again, taking in the way the man watches the barrels be loaded off, his white shirt moving along with the wind. Mark ducks under the water, swims until he’s underneath the dock and surfaces slowly. He jumps as the pounding of boots on the wood echoes against the water, blocking his ears slightly and moves to be underneath the man. 

“Be careful with that!” His voice is light and Mark can just make out his facial features from underneath the boards. “Wouldn’t want to spill the wine inside.” The men cheer, Mark blocking his ears again when the man begins to move away, Mark swimming to follow him. He can’t make out anything he says but Mark can’t help but be amazed at the beautiful smile. Mark stops himself from moving onto the sand, the man disappearing from his view.

Mark sighs, diving back under water and heads back home. He shouldn’t have come up to the surface this early in the morning - he knows that mermaids and mermen are still hunted and by him poking around the docks could have easily ended with disaster. He feels a chill run through him about the horror stories he’s been told - all of them ending with his loss of his tail and his death - and Mark pushes further away from the surface and the warm sunlight and heads further down.

“Now, let’s see if you remember what today was.” Mark jumps, turning around to see a flash of a pink tail before he turns to find his best friend, glaring at him with her arms crossed. He smiles, as his mind races, trying to place what today was that he had forgotten about. “And he doesn’t remember, this is new for you.”

“Rosie,” Mark sighs, turning around and heads further down, the rock arches of their small village coming into sights. He dawns on him as they clear it, pausing near the small cave that counts as his home. “The clams.”

“Ah, he remembers.”

“Listen -”

“Where did you go?” Rosie swims to be in front of him, studying his face. “Because I swear you were at the surface when you know we can’t go there.” 

“I wasn’t,” Mark smiles as he brushes past her, picking his bag up and turns to find her watching him, her pink hair floating around her. “I know today was our day to go gather clams for the village and I forgot but I really do apologize. I’ll make it up to you!” Mark smiles.

“How?” She moves over, leans back onto the long rock he counts as a bed and frowns at him. “What could you possibly think of to make it up for me?”

Mark floats over to her, tilting his head as he smiles down. “I’ll take you gem hunting tomorrow.” He smiles wider as Rosie looks away, he knows that he has her cornered. Mermaids might spend most of their days working around their village to keep it up and running - small groups going out for food, fixing up the stone caves they count as homes and more - but any mermaid or merman’s weakness is treasure hunting - especially for gems. He looks over quickly at his walls, covered with sparkly things he’s found and collected over the years. There’s even an area of the market - the area in the middle of town where they can all trade and buy - dedicated to the treasures found throughout the seafloor. 

He turns his attention back to his best friend, finding her looking back at him with a frown, “You better keep that promise, Mark. That’s not fair using that weakness against me.”

“I promise you.” He sticks his pinky finger out and beams when Rosie links them. “Perfect, there’s that huge stretch of sand that’s meant to be _covered_ in treasure that I’ve been waiting to get too.” 

“Yeah, yeah,” Rosie sits up, “I still want to know where you went.”   
  
Mark pauses as he moves towards his shelves before making himself reach down for his net bags. “A swim.”

“Sure you did.” Rosie gets up, moving towards the opening of the cave. “Well, I have things to do anyway and I can’t be here to watch you polish some of your treasures again.”  
  
Mark turns, holding up a small container filled with strings of pearls. “How did you know?”

“Because I know you better than you think.” Rosie waves over her shoulder, her voice echoing back to him. “I’ll see you tomorrow, bright and early!”

Mark watches her disappear, the echo dying out and Mark places down the container. He doesn’t want to sort through them again - even though he’ll need to make room for tomorrow’s findings - but his mind is racing. He has to make sure Rosie never finds out about the human man on the surface that takes up a majority of space in Mark’s thoughts and how he’s been going up there for weeks. He had gone up there once - the first time - just to see if he could do it, wanting to see if he would ever get comfortable enough to go further out and explore. He had popped his head out, finding it early in the morning and the docks were pretty much empty except for him.

Mark still doesn’t know his name, he can never catch it when he’s around, but the rising sun had painted the human in such beautiful hues, the warm breezing causing the human to move into it with a smile and Mark has not stopped thinking about him since. He moves a few objects over, places his bangs down onto his small stone table and sits down. He’ll go out with Rosie for the day, explore around the piles of lost human treasures and then maybe go up later in the day, just to see if can find him again. 

~

Rosie pushes herself to move a bit faster as she gets further up, the sky a darkening pink and Rosie doesn’t want to miss her. She breaks through the surface, pushing her hair out of her face as it clings to her skin and she slowly pushes towards the rock cluster she’s been using as a hideaway for a while now. She gets closer, places her hands onto the largest ones and pushes herself up. She settles down on top, moving as she can lean against the one in front of her, and tilts slightly out from around it.

She flies backwards when her eyes land a human, taking a deep breath and moves to look again. Rosie’s face softens as it lands on a woman with long black hair, tied back from her face, crouched down onto the small beach. Rosie had found this era by accident but it’s a bit out of reach for most humans and she thought it was safe. She had come up here, eyes scanning the horizon and moved over to look for some different treasures when the human woman she’s looking at now had come down to the shoreline and Rosie moved back underwater. 

It had taken her another week to finally come back, finding the rock cluster she’s sitting on now, and spied on the human. Seemingly humans also enjoy shell hunting since this human woman comes every night to sit around on a bench and usually picks up and looks at the shells that wash up on shore. Rosie usually watches her for a bit, interested - wanting - to know what the human woman does with her collection. 

She ducks again when the human woman stands up, brushing her hands onto her pants and moves to sit down onto the long bench and stares out into the horizon. Rosie looks carefully, shifting her tail to make sure it’s not in view and takes in the dying red glow and how it touches the woman’s facial features. Rosie smiles, taking in the truly most beautiful face she’s ever seen, and leans against the rock. 

The woman looks down at her lap, Rosie spotting a few small shells and then gets up slowly. Rosie watches her walk away, disappearing past trees and bushes and Rosie pouts. She wishes she had stayed just a bit longer, just so the sunlight could go down and they could have spent it together. Rosie frowns, pushes away and lowers herself down into the water. She watches the sun dip just a bit lower before she begins the dive back down to home.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you everyone that has checked out the fic so far! especially if you're reading for chaelisa! hope you enjoy!

Rosie lifts a lid off of a barrel, frowning when it comes up empty. She reaches inside, letting her hand feel around the bottom and perks up when she touches something. Rosie feels that pull, pulling out a gold coin and she inspects it closely. Deeming it a perfect find, she sticks into her bag and sets off down the long stretch of sea floor covered with lost objects. She looks around, brushing her hair out of her face as she spots the blue tail of her best friend kicking slowly as he digs through a chest. 

She moves herself over, peeking over his shoulder. “Find anything?”

Mark shakes his head, placing down dishes next to him. She looks at them, pouting when nothing catches her eye. “Where are those gems you promised me?”

“Here...somewhere,” Mark throws a smile over his shoulder. He looks around, moving slowly to note how far the treasures reach back across the sand behind them, heading further up towards the land. “We could always move a little bit ….closer to the surface.”

Rosie looks, eyes scanning quickly, “I mean….we’ll be careful.” They set off, swimming low as they move closer, pausing every once in a while as something catches their eye. They share a laugh as Rosie holds up a broken spyglass, Mark moving closer to cause her to jump slightly. It’s shoved into her bag, the sunlight breaking through the water as it dances around the newly lost treasure grove. “Now, this is what you promised me.”

Mark smiles, dashing towards a treasure chest at the same time as her, pushing it open to find a smaller box of gems and pearls. They sort through it happily, holding the gems up to their eyes and giggling at the colors. There’s nothing more relaxing than this to them - being with each other and being able to let that instinct in them take hold slightly. At the end of the day, they’ll have a bag worth of treasure and happy memories. 

They’re just moving into a crate, Rosie smashing it open it a rock when a large shadow moves over them. They pause, grabbing onto the handles of their bags tightly as a boat comes to a stop, an anchor dropping down not far from them. They shoot off, Mark looking over his shoulder as they pause far enough from the boat and any thrown nets. Rosie grabs his hand, pulling him towards the surface and the two of them find a rock to hide behind. 

“Are they here for the treasure?” Mark whispers, eyes scanning the boat when they land on someone familiar. He perks up slightly before stopping himself, moving back behind the rock. 

“I hope not.” Rosie pouts. “We should go before they catch us, we’ve been here long enough.” Rosie goes under and Mark takes a moment to look at his male human from a distance and the last thing he sees just as he moves back under water is his head being thrown back with a laugh.

~

Mark sits next to her, digging through his bag happily while she does the same. Rosie pulls out the broken spyglass, dusting off sand stuck onto the side and places it down between them. “Are you okay?” Mark asks, rubbing his thumb against the surface of a gold coin. 

“Yeah, why?” 

“I just meant with the boat and the humans.” 

“Oh.” Rosie laughs, turning to look at him. “I’m alright, I’m glad that we're both here. Are you okay?”

Mark nods, “Yup.” He brings out a string of pearls, places down his bag and moves over to his shelves. He slides them into the small box containing his other ones, moving to get his bag and begins emptying it. “You - you brought us to the surface.”

“I did.” Mark can see her watching him before turning her attention back to her bag. “I just wanted to see what they looked like.” He lets the awkward silence fall over them, chewing on his lip as he keeps his secret tucked deep inside him. 

~

“Did you hear? Three mermaids went missing a few villages over.” 

Rosie pauses as she looks over the packages of food, looking around and landing on two mermaids at the same stall. Their heads are bent together, whispering but due to the noise in the market, their whispers aren’t that low. 

“We keep getting taken.” One woman says, picking up a package. Rosie reaches for two, pointing to a bag of oysters before taking them from the stall owner. “Someone’s going to have to do something, the scouts have said that boats are landing near our village and I don’t want to move everyone just for the fishermen..” 

“Thank you.” Rosie smiles as takes her bundles of food and moves away. She gets a few feet before turning back, the woman already gone and their conversation with them. She looks up towards the surface and shakes her head - they’re lucky they got out of that alive. She moves around the crowds, noting that the disappearances are the topic of conversation that evening. She pushes away, moving back towards the road leading toward Mark and pauses when she spots a stand filled with shells. She pauses, eyes searching and that instinct of searching through treasure kicks in.

“Hi Rosie.” She looks up, making eye contact with the owner. 

“Hi Ten.” She says with a smile, moving closer and she pauses on a large conch. “How much is that?”

“I’ll give you a deal of ten seaglass for it.” Rosie nods, grabbing her bag and begins counting out the amount. “Getting it for someone special?” 

Rosie pauses, shutting the pouch and focuses on counting the amount again. “What makes you say that?”

Ten laughs, taking the seaglass with a smile. “Just wondering, I see you moving around the village a lot and just thought.”

“Oh.” Rosie laughs, waving a hand away before her eyes note the smaller ones. She moves over as Ten laughs, picking up the conch. “No, just for me. These are nice, how much?” She points to a bundle.

~

Rosie holds onto the bags of food tightly as she moves back towards Mark’s cave, the large shell in her bag bumps against her hip as she moves. She tries to hide her happiness and the want to immediately head to shore and drop it off, she doesn’t need him picking up on her change of mood or anyone else for that matter. She moves inside, pausing as she watches her best friend and how he’s unaware she’s not back yet. He hums happily, the sound bringing a smile to her face but then she tilts her head in confusion, a slight frown tugging at her lips as she notes the faraway look in his eyes and the smitten smile on his face. She’s been slightly aware that he’s been keeping something from her but she doubts Mark would have kept an entire relationship secret.

He turns slowly, placing down a large shell onto his table and he freezes when they make eye contact. “You’re back!” He smiles, moving over to take the food from her. Rosie’s eyebrows shoot up before she shakes it away. She can think about that later. She moves in, places her bag down and begins helping him unwrap the food. “Hey, can I have one?!” He points to her bag, the shells poking out. “They’re so nice!” 

“No.”

“Why not?!”

“Because I bought them for myself.” Rosie says, nodding her head. She shoves an oyster into his mouth. “I’ll buy you a nice shell tomorrow if the seller is back in town tomorrow. Now eat before I take all the food for myself.” 

~

Rosie pushes past the surface, brushing her hair out of her face and clutches the conch to her chest as she moves towards the shoreline. She’s never been this close to the land, her eyes scanning frantically for any humans. She pulls herself up onto the shore, the waves crashing softly around her and she places the conch on top and out of the way of them. She pushes them with her fingertips, straining herself not to be that much out of the water and then pushes herself back into the ocean quickly. 

She dives underneath, shoots toward the rock formation and surfaces again. She peeks around the corner, finding the human woman coming into the clearing and Rosie lets out a sigh of relief that she got out there when she did. She smiles softly as the woman looks around at the shells and gasps - the sound just reaching her ears - when she spots the shell placed there for her. 

The woman picks it up, moves to shoreline to wash away the sand sticking to it and stands up straight. She holds the shell in front of her, turning it over carefully before moving to sit down. Rosie watches her pull her legs underneath her and how she carefully places the shell down into her lap. She stays for a little while more before moving back underneath the waves and heads home with a smile on her face she can’t wipe clean.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for all the kudos & hits! i know this is a little slow burn (i think so? i never really know if i write slow burn or not in fics) but we're getting there!

Mark moves slowly underneath the docks, his head sticking out to just underneath his eyes and Mark follows the movements of the human man. He’s laughing around but Mark only takes in the smile on his face. He moves slowly, barely distributing the water as he goes and waits at the end as the man talks to another human, their heads bent over a large book on a podium. 

“We’ll be leaving late next week again,” Mark blushes slightly at the man’s voice. “After the dinner. Father will want me back on the ship again.”

“Of course captain.” 

“Don’t call me that.” The man whines, earning laughter from the man he’s standing next to. “That makes me feel old when all I do is help around when I’m on board, I don’t captain the ship at all.”

“You will one day. Captain Bambam, that has a nice ring to it.” Mark covers his mouth as he gasps, a smile forming as excitement floods his body. He has a name finally and Mark can’t help but repeat it mentally, over and over again.  _ Bambam _ . “But the boats will be ready for the next expedition, we’ll be able to get a good amount of fish next time we go.”   


Mark pauses, the excitement draining away as the word fishermen comes to mind. He’s one of the species that hunts his own kind, taking them aboard and tortures them. He looks down at his tail, watching the sunlight dance across the glitter in his blue scales. He looks back up, still finding the smile he’s so smitten with and smiles slightly. But then stories of what fishermen do to his kind - ripping scales out, draining them from water, killing them - rushes back and Mark dives back underwater, his scale splashing loudly as he moves quickly. 

Mark looks up when he’s underneath, panicking more as he finds Bambam looking over the docks. He’s far enough down that he won’t be able to see him - even if he tried - but Mark swears that they make eye contact. Mark hurries away, pushing himself faster and tries not to look back. 

~   


Mark wrings his hands as he swims around the village, nodding his head to the mermaids that pass him, pushing himself to keep moving. He looks up, back towards the surface and when he catches himself, shakes his head and moves through the rows of the market. His eyes dance over the food, items and homemade treasures barely taking it all in. He stops when something gold catches his eye but then the image of his scales being ripped from him comes back and Mark panics and flees. 

He finds a quiet spot on the edge of the village, a small seating area that overlooks the exit towards a village miles away. He sits down, pulls his tail up to his chest and stares out into the nothingness. 

“So,” He jumps when Rosie sits next to him. “People have been telling me - begging actually - to go check on you because you’re worrying people.”   
  
“I have not.”

“You've been stress swimming throughout the village and even muttering to yourself.” He turns his head, he hadn’t even noticed that he was speaking. “What’s bothering you?”

“I - nothing. It’s nothing.” 

Rosie sighs before leaning back onto her hands. Her tail moves slowly, Mark watching the pink scales glimmer. “You know, the shell stand is open again today.” Rosie says, tilting her head. “And I think there must be a shell there calling your name.”   


Mark turns to look at her, eyes dancing around her face. “Really?”   
  
“Yeah, I don’t know what’s gotten you upset but when you’re ready, please talk to me.” Rosie smiles a bit. “I don’t like seeing you worried.” Mark nods and Rosie takes his hand. “Come on, let’s go get you a shell.” 

~

Mark moves cautiously up towards the surface. It’s later in the day and as Mark hugs the shell to his chest, he feels a bit more grounded. He reaches the top, makes sure he’s underneath the docks and pokes his head out. He watches Bambam’s feet kick off the side, moving towards him and pauses when he hears a noise. He looks around, confused when he realizes that it’s coming from Bambam. He pauses, letting the water settle around him and listens to the humming. 

Mark feels himself relax more, the panic from this morning draining out of his body completely. Maybe he jumped quickly to disaster, he’s been extra cautious about being seen and has come to the conclusion there’s no way that Bambam even saw him that morning. He has better eyesight underwater than humans and misjudged the distance. He runs his fingertips over the shell, taking in the relaxing tune and stays until nighttime falls when Bambam gets up, leaving Mark to listen to the sound of his boots on the wood of the docks.

~  


Rosie smiles as she leans against the rocks, watching the human woman relax on the bench on the shoreline again. The sun is just beginning to set, a slightly cool breeze in the air tonight and Rosie ignores the chill that runs through her body. The woman pushes her hair over her shoulder, turning a page in the book she’s reading and Rosie studies her. They don’t have books - the water ruins them but they have found a few to study. She leans when the woman shifts, bringing a leg up to be underneath her and Rosie furrows her eyebrows at the sight of her legs. 

“What are those….” She whispers to herself, turning to look down at her tail before looking back at the woman. “Oh … are those feet?” She makes a face of disgust. “Weird.” 

“Lisa?” 

Rosie’s eyes widen at the voice, watching the woman turn towards the voice. That’s her name and Rosie has to lay back against the rock as she feels a giddiness flood through her. She flicks her tail, hearing it just skim across the water and Rosie can’t find the will to worry if someone hears her. She sits up quickly, peeking around the rock to find Lisa bent back over her book and the voice gone. 

Rosie leans back against the rock, watching her with a smile and imagines having the chance to say her name to her.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you all for reading! kudos & comments are welcome!


End file.
